Clean Milking worth the Extra Effort to Maryland Couple
By Fran Alt
A tall man, dressed in blue denim from his engineer's hat to his jeans, was closing a gate near the top of a hill. "That's some wind," the denim guy said, as he walked down the short but steep hill, and introduced himself. His name was Dyke Garber.
Dyke and his wife Mary have a dairy farm just outside of Johnsville, near Frederick Maryland, where they started dairying on their own in 1981.
With 110 milking cattle and 65 replacement heifers, Mary and Dyke stay busy seven days a week.
"We do it all; rarely take anytime off. Mary and I do all the milking," Dyke says, thinks for a second and reiterates, "Well mostly Mary. I'm feeding up. She does the other things too, like feeding the heifers.
"Farming is a good peaceful life for family. Sometimes going out into town makes you glad you are going back to the farm. I think that's important. You get out and realize what other people have to go through - like commuting. The guy on the radio helps. Feels good just listening to the traffic report in the morning."
The Garbers' milk in a 20 stall stanchion barn. Milkers stay in the barn, which is convenient. "I think with the parlor you lose a bit of contact with your cows and what's happening with them. I feed them in the cow barn too. I can see a lot here about how they are health wise," Dyke said.
Their cows are 95 percent Holsteins, with the rest Ayshires, Jerseys and Linebacks. Dyke says, some people don't know what a Lineback is, and explains that it looks like a Holstein, but black on the sides with a white jagged strip across the back.
They raise all their heifers. Dyke thinks it might be less expensive to buy heifers, but feels his closed herd keeps out disease. All the breeding on the Garber farm is AI.
The Garbers have done very well with having clean milk the last few years. "As far as somatic cells, we were the third lowest in Frederick County, DHIA," Dyke said. Their average count stays under 150,000 and sometimes is under 100,000.
"That is something we make an extra effort to work-on. It has gotten to be an important part of what we work for. We try to keep the cows clean. We do a clean job of milking and we use a barrier teat dip. If a cow has a problem she'll stay out of the tank until her somatic cells are down. We don't just base mastitis on clinical signs; we look at the sub-clinical situation also. The cows do not go in the tank unless they pass the CMT test," Dyke said.
Besides taking a preventive approach to mastitis, the Garbers also put stone dust over the entire floor every time they scrape. This keeps the cows from slipping on the concrete.
Dyke feels a cow will have a longer life span if you do not rush rebreeding. "I think a cow will milk longer and hold her peek longer if you don't rush rebreeding her. I carry a longer calving interval, and I am happy with it. I don't force my cows as far as breeding them. If a cow is giving a 100 pounds of milk, generally I'll wait a hundred days until I breed them."
When asked about heat stress Dyke said, "Most of the summer is fine. We have fans for summer but generally heat is not a problem. There are some hot and humid days, but the Maryland climate is livable for cows. If it does get hot they just lay in their free stalls. The stalls have sawdust bedding on top of a dirt-based bottom. They all have housing - the heifers and the dry cows. We bed every animal every day. We do whatever we can to make sure they are comfortable. That is a large part of a cow care. They graze a lot in the summer. I believe in exercise and I have a good bit of pasture."
To keep costs down Dyke says the biggest thing for the dairy farmer is keeping your machinery in check. His newest tractor is a 1976, and he just bought his first cab tractor a 73 Allis Chamblis.
Dyke says dairying is his hobby too - on good days that is. "There are days when it seems like a hobby and days where it seems like a job. I think every dairy farmer, if he is a true farmer - his job is his number one hobby.
"Mary is just like me about farming. Happy so long as things are not stressed. We have to work everyday but I think we'll enjoy a longer retirement than the average person who has a day or two off a week. Twice-a-day milking keeps us home all the time. Later in life we look forward to not having to worry about the cows - just heifers or crop farming. It'll be a different type of work load."